The Research On The Copyrightability Of Application Programming Interface

As the Supreme Court of the United States decided to take over the protracted Oracle v.Google litigation on November 15,2019,the flame of the delimitation issue of idea and expression in the field of application programming interface(hereinafter refer to as API),which was ignited by the nearly decade-long battle over the copyrightability of API,has once again flared up in the intellectual property law community and the computer software industry.The backlash between the copyrightability camp,led by the Trump administration,and the non-copyrightability camp,led by Silicon Valley giants,also points to the complexity of the balancing would be faced in the final decision.The very key to the copyrightability issue of the case lies in the correct grasping of the legal attributes of the implementing code,declaring code and the overall structure,sequence and organization(hereinafter refer to as SSO)of API;and from a more macro perspective,it also lies in the correct understanding of the nature of API and the development the computer software industry.In this regard,following the research route of “discovering problems,analyzing problems and solving problems”,this article presents five chapters except the introduction to analyze and ponder the copyrightability issue of API ignited by the Oracle v.Google litigation in a progressive manner,repeatedly argues for the purely functional and indicative role of the declaring code and the overall SSO of API,which leads to the conclusion that API shall not be protected by copyright law,and finally explores the alternative protection mode.Chapter I,introducing the basic technical features of API,and sorting out the legislative and judicial history of computer software copyright protection in the United States;Chapter II,introducing the focuses of controversy over the copyrightability of API through the Oracle v.Google trial process,sorting out judicial opinions of relevant courts,and expressing an outlook on the future thereof;Chapter III,discussing the limitations and inherent contradictions of API copyright protection mode,and seeking theoretical support for constructing a specialized computer software protection legal system through basic principles and hypotheses,such as network externalities,Moore’s law and Andy and Bill’s law,of economics and computer software industry;Chapter IV,considering and responding to the representative viewpoints of the“expression-idea dichotomy” in judicial practice and academic discussions,respectively looking into the originality,expressiveness and patent attributes of the implementing code,declaring code and the overall SSO of API,and putting forward a preliminary idea of constructing a specialized computer software protection legal system;Chapter V,refining and summarizing the core points of this article,expressing an outlook on the future of Oracle v.Google brought before the Supreme Court of the United States,and the expectation for constructing a specialized computer software protection legal system.